Entries this day: Bil'in Kellie_got_52_too!! News flock google-earth

Bil'in

10:02 am IST Friday 21 October 2005

damn. Charged my Handspring batteries, but forgot to synch it, so it doesn't have the driver for the keyboard. This is definitely a reason to invest in an extra set of batteries.

5:57pm

((Plus is just took about 5 minutes for the initializing synchronization; subsequent ones take about 20 seconds.))

Around noon the five of us (Ben, Dave, Jason, Juliet, me) were arriving in the Bil'in area, and passengers in cars headed *away* gave "turnaround" hand motions to inform us of a checkpoint ahead.

We kept going for a bit and I was like, "dude; shouldn't we stop *before* we get to the checkpoint??" Jason agreed and spoke to the driver. We stopped, got out, and walked well away from the checkpoint at the encouragement of a local. (Jason believed we were being way over cautious, given that the checkpoint will be a single jeep with at most 4 soldiers (the number that will fit in one jeep?). Nothing like bunches of guys with binoculars and night vision goggles searching the surroundings for people creeping around the roadblock. Plus, if they saw us, they wouldn't do anything because officially their job is to stop traffic on the road.) We walked away from the road, down a stepped valley, up the other side and back toward the road. Along the way we found a really cool lizard, and I thought of Maggie, who loves skinks and I'm sure would have loved this little guy!

I was amazed when I saw a little turtle in the tree!!! Turns out it was a turtle missing a head, but still a pretty neat shot.

After a long hike, we headed back to the road and Jason went to make sure the coast was clear. Irony of ironies, we had only progressed about 30 meters beyond the checkpoint. Shit!

We headed a bit further down before re-engaging the road.

We arrived much later than last week; the march had already gone from the mosque to the stand-off location, and broke up just a few minutes after we arrived.

I was much more in the action than last week, but there was not as much action. This is probably a good thing considering that I was walking around with the soldiers. I got plenty of video, but I'm pretty sure none of it is all that amazing. I've not gone through it, though, so I reserve the right to change my mind.

I got bored after a while and went back to where the standoff took place and sat on the edge of the road to try and capture some footage good enough to make a splash in this video flooded world.

Some soldiers walked past me and then I heard a loud wham and felt something hit me pretty hard on the neck/shoulder. I immediately thought I had been hit by a soldier with a baton and expected more painful blows. Instead, a guy came up like, "are you okay?"

I assure him I was okay. The feeling was more surprising than painful, but I didn't know what had hit me. I asked him, "what was it?"

"A stone."

"Okay. Then I'm okay."

The basic logic being that I know what stones do: bruise and break. I wasn't broken, and I can handle a bruise. If it had been a military weapon, then I would have wanted to be more certain I was okay. I don't know what some of these new things can do.

I stood my ground, but kept a more watchful eye on the guys slinging stones from the area below.

After a bit, I sat down on a rock (same one from last week) and some soldiers came and sat on nearby rocks. Other soldiers sat behind me.

After maybe 20 minutes, the guys behind me asked where I was from. I ended up chatting with them for probably 20 minutes! A couple guys were funny, introducing each other with names like Joey, Jimmy, Johnny, Jerry, Jamie, etc. They asked if I was gay or straight and informed me who was gay nearby, but assured me it was a secret. One guy asked if I wanted to fire his rifle, but I definitely turned down the offer with a half-scared laugh. Ain't no way I'm touching your weapon while 20 of yer mates all stand around with machine guns!

One guy asked what I was doing (what film crew I worked for) but I told him it was just for my personal site and gave him the URL. His friend wrote it down as well. Sorry I can't remember the names.

They all eventually had to leave, but I got a final parting shot with two soldiers holding Francois!

- - - -

I headed down the hill soon thereafter, toward the noise of some demonstrators. Before I got too close, I felt a sense of better not get too close and headed away from them. I didn't want to get involved in any more stonings or melees of any type. I walked along an elevated rock path that in some concepts could be called a road, but was only as wide as a sidewalk. I headed toward the main street, and passed an ambulance along the way. Waved HI to the driver, who then honked at me after I walked past.

"Your rabbit!"

he wants to see Francois?? I thought and turned around to show him.

Holy shit Francois was face down on the ground!!!!

How amazing that he had fallen/jumped out of my pocket *just* in front of a guy who saw it and chose to let me know. Oh my gosh I would have felt so sad to lose Francois.

I told him thank you thank you and introduced Francois, but then we got a big waft of tear gas that had been fired upon the demonstrators to whom I hadn't gotten too close, so I was like, "okay bye!" to the EMS guy. Tears and snot and burning lips walking back into town.

But I had Francois. Man.

Took service taxis back to the hostel. 11.2 NIS total to get back. Pretty good price. Found Juliet, Jason, Dave, Ben had arrived just 15 minutes earlier.

Kellie got 52 too!!

10:50pm IST Friday 21 October 2005

Whoohoooooooo!!!

It'll be so great to sail around the world together!!

News

11:33pm IST Friday 21 October 2005

I argued that the headline "the Palestinian public will pay" *proves* that Palestine is unfairly treated. Sarah pointed out that the newspaper was not *condoning* the behavior, but predicting. I was like, "I am glad to hear that, but my point remains." Palestine is under apartheid.

flock

##06:53 Friday 21 October 2005

flock.com promises to be a new type of web browser, which breaks the concept of just being a single user in search of the last page of the internet. It's supposed to let people's browsing experiences merge together in some sort of internetally related hyperweb (I just made that term up) of similar interests that organically come out of browsing and linking slash bookmarking things we like.

google earth

##01:05 Friday 21 October 2005

Wow. Google Earth rules.

I am 99% certain I have found Scott, my favorite car parked at my office at FSD about 3 or 4 years ago in Houston. That is awesome.

I sent a 'bookmark' to myself (and Dude and Fred); I wonder if I can post it in here somehow.